


gotta cut loose

by Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Family hijinks, nebula is a little tired of being nice she wants to steal something, started out as a silly little piece and then it hit 3000 words when i was done lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:02:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26243095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell/pseuds/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell
Summary: If Nebula doesn't help with this, then their little sibling will get arrested, and Nebula will have to bust them out again. It'll be a whole thing. So naturally, she decides to just help her sibling commit a robbery.(If she has fun with it, no one has to know.)
Relationships: Nebula Goodspeed & Americato Goodspeed, Nebula Goodspeed/Pepurr
Kudos: 1





	gotta cut loose

**Author's Note:**

> title is taken from footloose by kenny loggins, because of course! this fic is based off an image InfernalPume drew for me!!

Nebula had disappeared.  _ Again.  _

It wasn’t something she did very often, but it was the  _ third  _ time she had done it since they had arrived on this planet for the tour, and Pepurr was starting to suspect something. It seemed like the tabloids were, too- they always lost track of her, but over the past few days, blurry photos of her walking somewhere, wearing unusually casual clothes, had made its way into their gossip rags.

Most of the magazines agreed that she must be having rendezvous of a  _ romantic  _ sort, but Nebula just scoffed those off when asked about it. And not even in the way she did when she was trying to put on a vapid act to hide some tidbit of bounty hunter knowledge she had ingrained into her. 

“Angel,” she would say, pursing her lips while applying lipstick, Pepurr paying attention to everything in the room and trying to pretend like he wasn’t, “I don’t have  _ time  _ for a boyfriend. Plus, most of the guys I meet are total sleazeballs. I’m just not interested.”

“There’s got to be  _ someone!”  _ Her fellow idol answered, as if they didn’t have the same conversation  _ twice a day.  _ And at that point, for some reason, Nebula’s gaze would always flicker over to Pepurr and away again, her cheeks darkening slightly. 

“If there ever is anyone, you guys will know about it.” Nebula always said next, fluffing her hair in the mirror and inspecting her reflection to see if there was anything else to be fixed. “But for right now, the only thing  _ I’m  _ infatuated with is my job. And sneaking some candy on the side, but you didn’t hear that.”

And, always, Pepurr would wonder for a minute what that split second glance meant. It wasn’t as if he cared about her social life. The only thing causing the slight twist in his stomach was the fact that if she got a boyfriend, that would just be one more person he’d have to guard. But that was  _ it.  _

This time, though, Leora spoke up, breaking from the usual routine of just getting ready. 

“So if you don’t have a boyfriend, where  _ do  _ you go?”

And instantly, the bubbly pop star persona came on as she shrugged, grinning sheepishly. Pepurr could practically see how the other three fell for it, just like he could see the hints of guilt in Nebula’s face for lying to them. 

“Oh, this town is just so  _ pretty,  _ you know?” Nebula says, her voice bright. “And I don’t get to see enough of it when we’re out and about during the day because of all the interviews and stuff. It’s good to see how the other half lives.”

Pixie nodded like it made sense, and  _ that  _ marked the end of the conversation. But now Pepurr had it confirmed for him.

Nebula was  _ up  _ to something.

He just had to find out what.

* * *

Two years ago, if you had told Nebula she would be planning heists and actually  _ enjoying  _ planning those heists, she would have laughed in your face.

And yet, here she was. 

_ Its not like I  _ **_want_ ** _ to steal shit.  _ She thought, justifying her actions to no one.  _ But Mer’s going to do it even if I don’t help them, and they’re  _ **_not_ ** _ that subtle. They’d get caught like that. And then I’d have to bail them out of prison again, and it would be a whole  _ **_thing._ **

So, yeah. She was doing this for her sibling. And if there was a little part of her that was relieved she didn’t have to keep pretending to be someone she wasn’t at times like this? Well, she was more than happy to ignore it.

It was just one necklace. Like all those heist movies that she had seen with her family growing up _.  _ She could help them pull it off- go in and clear the way ahead of time so they could drop in and get what they had come for. They’d hashed this plan out together over the last few nights, in between eating garbage fast food and listening to rundowns of each other’s lives. 

Yeah, Nebula had  _ hated  _ being a bounty hunter. She didn’t want to fight people, and she didn’t want to spend her whole life doing illegal things. But now that she was working harder to be closer to her family, well… it wasn’t like stealing a necklace would hurt anyone. 

And it was  _ good.  _ Hanging out with their younger sibling again, plotting hijinks? It was like old times, only better, because they  _ understood  _ each other somewhat now. Nebula enjoyed the glamour and semi-stability of her day job, and Americato had flourished in the chaos that was the family business. As long as Americato understood this wasn’t what Nebula wanted to do  _ all  _ the time, it would be great to hang out with them more.

Hell, they had checked the race schedule and matched it to Nebula’s tour schedule. Four months from now they’d end up on the same planet, and they already had plans to sneak them into Nebula’s little suite that accommodated her.

So yeah. She could do this. It would be good to test her reflexes, see if she had gotten at all rusty in her three years away from home.

She knew the plan. She had rehearsed it in her head and on the street last night, though she hadn’t actually gone into the building. Just walked right past it to the cafe on the corner and bought some sort of ridiculously sweet coffee creation. That way, if anyone had questions, she could just claim to be dodging her diet.

(It wasn’t even a complete lie- she  _ hated  _ dieting. It was probably the one part of her career she outright despised.)

If everything was going right, Americato should be making their way along the rooftops right now, ready to-

The slight flash from a rooftop- not a camera flash, but sunset’s light on a mirror- made Nebula square her shoulders. She pulled out her compact as if to check her complexion, angling the mirror so that it would shine back at Mer.

The subtle signal for  _ its time.  _

* * *

For someone with some sort of bounty hunting background, Nebula had no idea when she was being followed. Which was good, because it meant Pepurr would be able to find out just  _ what  _ the girl he had been assigned to guard was after. 

Yesterday, he had  _ seen  _ her stop in front of a building and eye it up before continuing on down the street. She had been unusually secretive with her holos, the way she wasn’t when she was just checking out social media. 

So in the morning, Pepurr had gone in and cased it out. It turned out to be some  _ museum  _ that just so happened to have a necklace on display. A very  _ expensive  _ necklace. 

_ Princess,  _ he thought, the nickname coming back from its exasperated origins,  _ what in the fresh  _ **_hell_ ** _ are you up to? _

He’d get the story out of her later. Preferably  _ after  _ he stopped whatever nonsense she was trying to complete.

* * *

Everything was going  _ perfectly.  _ And, though Nebula  _ never  _ would have admitted it, something inside of her was  _ thrilled  _ to be doing this again. Planning things out, creeping around, perfectly aware of the consequences of what would happen- it was like a dance. An old, once favored dance, that she had never really forgotten the steps to, no matter how hard she tried. 

And she had tried everything, including shutting her family out and being  _ alone  _ for three years. She didn’t realize just how badly it had hurt her until that month spent recuperating on the family’s ship. Didn’t realize that, even with crowds screaming her name, with her songs on the radio and her face plastered on alien billboards, she would be so entirely, soul-crushingly  _ alone. _

_ Don’t dwell on that now, Neb.  _ She thought, tucking a loose strand of hair back behind her ear, fixing the device in her bag over the security alarm and watching the numbers count upwards, figuring out the code.  _ Theft now, brooding later.  _

The little machine beeped softly, the numbers flashing green once, and Nebula slipped into the museum, grinning as she crept along. She had always been pretty decent with machines- a side effect of her learning how to set up beauty vlogs from deep space. 

This was going to be a cinch- now all she had to do was get to the necklace, and figure out how to turn off the force field protecting it. Mer had been given the jammer that made all the security cameras go on the fritz, and Nebula could see it was functioning from the frantic blinking light on one of the ones that was zooming around in disoriented circles.

She wandered up the stairs, down a few corridors and  _ finally  _ saw the purple glow of the force field, set against all the dimness, the only light available the rapidly sinking sunlight coming from the skylight. 

And that was where she got too cocky.

She took a few steps forwards, and then there was a faint  _ shush  _ as she stepped on something and next thing she knew she was hanging upside down and  _ she couldn’t get her arms free maybe it was a sign to panic-  _

And then, by some weird stroke of luck, the overhead lights turned on, probably on an automatic timer for when the night guards ended up coming along. 

She started wriggling once she realized that the ropes  _ weren’t  _ too tight, and she could probably slip out of them even before Americato got there. And then she heard the slight noise, like someone was clearing their throat. And looked up. To see  _ Pepurr  _ there.

_ Well, shit.  _ She thought, somewhat hysterically as she felt her face heat up. 

“You know,” Pepurr drawled, and Nebula only blushed harder, glad that her skin was too dark to be caught embarrassed, “usually this is when people say ‘ _ This isn’t what it looks like!’  _ or something like that.”

“That depends,” Nebula snarks back, smiling despite the nervousness and her background thoughts of  _ how will this effect the plan,  _ “What does it look like?”

“Like you’ve suddenly decided to set your career you tell me you love so much every other  _ week  _ aside for theft.”

Nebula hums. She really should consider not being such a little shit, but the blood is rushing to her head and she can  _ hear  _ the faint  _ whirr  _ that’s Americato breaking in from above. Maybe if she keeps his attention on her, they’ll be able to get in and  _ not  _ freak out upon seeing her.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what it is.” She says after a second. Pepurr actually  _ growls,  _ pressing his fist to his forehead (and Nebula has to concentrate hard not to think about how  _ hot  _ that sound is,  _ fuck crushes, fuck this- _ ) before he takes a breath.

“Why?”

There is, Nebula realizes, no smart answer to this situation. This is one of those things that doesn’t make sense unless you  _ know  _ her family. 

“...Family bonding time?” She offers up weakly, because its  _ true.  _ Pepurr doesn’t believe it for a second, and Nebula can see it. 

“You decided to give up at least three years of being legit, and rob a museum, just to have fun with your  _ family?”  _ Pepurr asks, putting air quotes around it. 

“It’s not  _ fun.  _ “ Nebula shoots back, even though she’s pretty sure that anyone who had seen her five minutes ago would have known she was having a  _ blast.  _ “Look, my sibling happened to be in town, and they were planning this. They’re a kick-ass at their races and stuff, but they’re not good with  _ subtlety.  _ And the last time they got arrested and I tried to help them I ended up getting dragged into a prison break and a high-stakes race that almost ended in me committing arson. So really, this is a lot easier.”

Pepurr’s eyebrows just kept climbing into his fur, and Nebula was  _ pissed  _ because every word of what she was saying was true. She just couldn’t prove it. 

Thankfully, Americato seems to have made it inside and past whatever shock was holding them in place, because they speak up. 

“Nebby, I maintain that you would  _ not  _ have had to set that guy’s ship on fire, even if we  _ hadn’t  _ managed to get away.”

“He was being an asshole!” Nebula shoots back, the kind of statement that she would  _ love  _ to throw her hands up in dramatics at. 

Now  _ Pepurr  _ is the quiet one, watching as Nebula sways around and tries to shimmy enough to get loose, arguing with her sibling. Who is a hybrid, which she has repeatedly  _ told  _ him, the way she’s told him her parentage and everything she always worked so hard to keep secret. But he still doesn’t believe her. She’s starting to believe that even if mom and both her dads showed up for a visit, it wouldn’t be enough to convince him.

“He was.” Americato secedes, getting to the floor with a complicated series of motions that Nebula can’t see all of. “But we got away. No arson necessary, this time.”

Nebula huffs, and Americato grins, knowing they’ve won. Then they look at Pepurr. 

“So, are you gonna let me get my sister loose?”

Pepurr raises an eyebrow at Americato, looking like he’d really rather be done with this whole thing. 

“She’s not helping you steal that.  _ Neither  _ of you are stealing that.”

“Yeah, sure, bud.” Americato says dismissively, their tone  _ just  _ sarcastic enough that Nebula knows they’re not really going to listen to a word Pepurr says. But they pull out a knife and slice Nebula out, quickly but carefully. 

Nebula drops to the ground in a heap, and tries to get back up to salvage what’s left of her dignity. Unfortunately there’s still so much blood in her head that black dots swarm her vision and she just almost drops again, only for Pepurr to reach out and grab her by the forearms, holding her steady. She grabs onto his arms to hold herself in place, trying to ignore the way she can feel the heat rise to her cheeks  _ again.  _

When she finally lets her hands slip from his forearms down to his wrists, then his hands, holding on just a moment longer before she lets go, Americato gives her a  _ look.  _ Nebula has to work hard not to groan out loud; she  _ knows  _ that look, and knows Mer’s got her pinned. 

Pepurr, for his part, lets out a huff, looking  _ marginally _ less exasperated. She’ll take it.   
  


“Come on, Princess.” He says, and his voice is annoyed but she  _ thinks  _ she can hear something fond underneath it. “Let’s get you home.”

Nebula follows, and she isn’t even sure if it’s reluctant or not. He ends up caving when she  _ begs  _ to get something else sweet from the cafe on the corner because she fucking  _ hates  _ the diet she’s on, but then it’s back to her room at the suite.

Mer’s taking off since Pepurr busted their heist, and Nebula’s not sure what to say. How do you say goodbye to the sibling you’re just starting to get along with?

  
  


She’s even more speechless when Americato steps forwards and yanks her into a hug, but she hugs back, hiding her face in Americato’s shoulder for just a moment. There’s a swell of emotions in her chest that she doesn’t know how to deal with. So she beats it back, slips back into one of her facades easy as breathing. When she pulls away from Mer, her eyes are still a little damp.

“See you in a few months.” She says, grinning down at them. “And maybe Purrding too, if you’ll be in a race. Make sure to kick ass.”

“I always do.” Americato says, grinning flippantly, and the wave of  _ love  _ Nebula feels for her younger sibling just about knocks her off her feet. “You have fun with your job, too.”

“I will.” Nebula says with a smile, and then Mer’s gone, slipping out the fire escape. Pepurr hasn’t budged from his place against the wall, and Nebula crams everything she’s feeling deep down, determined to deal with it later. When she’s alone.

“You’re not leaving any time soon, are you?” She asks him, and he snorts derisively.

“Not if you try to attempt museum heists with random hybrids the minute you get away from me.” He tells her. Nebula lets out a dramatic groan then, flopping down onto the couch. A moment later she grabs the remote, and waves him over.

“Alright. If you’re not gonna leave, we might as well watch something till it’s actually time for bed.” She tells him.

* * *

Nebula ends up falling asleep curled up on a corner of the couch that night. She never leaves the room. 

When the makeup team is doing their thing the next day, Angel is  _ all  _ dramatics. 

“ Did you hear?” She gushes. “Someone stole the necklace on display at the museum! They say it’s  _ priceless!”  _

It’s actually worth about a hundred twenty million, if Nebula remembers right, but she doesn’t bother to correct her fellow idol. Instead she thinks about her sibling, making off with it in the dead of night. Hopefully already a couple ports away by now, all the tech that Nebula had set up for them to use packed back up in the Mechataur with them. 

Pepurr shoots her a quiet, accusatory look, and Nebula allows herself to flash a grin at him. Cheeky and not at  _ all  _ regretful, because it was a  _ fun  _ night. It was  _ good,  _ to be able to give into family hijinks, just this once.

And, well. The tabloids might have correctly pinned her crush on her own bodyguard, but no one  _ knows  _ that. 

Nebula fluffs her hair in the mirror and looks at Angel, and puts on her mask of innocence that fools everyone but Pepurr. 

“I didn’t hear anything at all. Do they know what happened?”


End file.
